Gary Clark, Jr
GARY CLARK, JR. 21st Century Blues The last two years have yielded a dizzying RISING FROM AUSTIN parade of triumphs for Gary Clark, Jr., the 28-year-old artist from Austin, Texas. With the by Tom Hyslop force of Warner Brothers Records behind him, Clark has received a promotional push that rivals that of any mainstream artist, one that certainly exceeds anything witnessed in the blues realm at least since the 1980s, with the mainstream breakouts of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray, and possibly since the highly-publicized signing of Johnny Winter by Columbia Records in 1969. In the course of the blitz, Clark has performed at every major festival, including Coachella, SXSW, Made In America, Bonnaroo, Summerfest, Lollapalooza, Dave Mathews Band Caravan, Newport Folk Fest, Electric Forest, Sasquatch! Festival, Mountain Jam, and others, along with dates in the most coveted clubs; received ink in a dizzying variety of publications, from MOJO and SPIN to such unexpected settings as Esquire, Vanity Fair, and even the mainstream Entertainment Weekly, with recurring coverage in Rolling Stone, including a five- star rating for his debut EP on Warners, in a write-up that led off the review section; and made appearances on the major late-night shows: Conan, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has taped an episode of Austin City Limits as headliner. A fragment of “Bright Lights” provided the soundtrack to a major mobile phone provider’s ubiquitous TV advertisement, and the video for “Ain’t Messin’ ‘Round” received regular rotation on VH1, America’s almost univer- sally available cable music television channel.
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